The First Lady Michelle Obama Visits Washington, D.C. Community Health Center
First Lady Michelle Obama paid a visit to a Washington, D.C., health center to underscore the critical role the national network of health centers play in health care. She visited Unity’s Upper Cardozo Health Center to announce the Obama Administration’s support for the renovation and modernization of health centers through the American Recovery and Re-Investment Act (ARRA), with the allocation $850 Million to construct or renovate health centers in urban and rural areas (see list of CIP grantees here).
Vincent A. Keane, President and CEO of Unity Health Care noted, “The financial investment in the renovation and modernization of Community Health Centers is unprecedented. As health care reform remains a high priority for all Americans it is obvious that President Obama envisions health centers as playing a key role in ensuring health care access for many of the 46 million uninsured.”
The District of Columbia, like many urban areas, experiences great disparities in health care. Community Health Centers like Unity’s Upper Cardozo provide a medical home for patients who would otherwise go without care. Through these medical homes patients get quality compassionate health care, learn disease prevention and health promotion. Keane said, “The $2.5 million in funding to renovate Upper Cardozo is a long-term investment that will result in improved health outcomes, and also insure that poor people receive quality care regardless of their ability to pay.”
Unity Health Care, Inc. (Unity) operates a network of 30 health centers that serve 85,000 patients annually, the majority of whom live below the Federal poverty level. The Centers are located in high-poverty neighborhoods as well as in homeless shelters and correctional facilities.
Photo by Jeffrey Clark: Unity President and CEO Vincent A. Keane chats with the First Lady at Unity’s Upper Cardozo Health Center.
